"There is absolutely no point in you pushing yourself when it isn't necessary," he continued calmly.
"It might mean you have to have more time off in the long run."
"I suppose so," she agreed quietly.
"It's just that there are one or two important items of correspondence I was going to do first thing.
That addition to the report, for instance--' "It's already been dealt with."
His tone was not unkind but it brought home to her how little he really needed her. Anyone would do.
Any reasonably capable secretary. She felt her heart thud painfully.
For goodness' sake pull yourself together and stop being so pathetic, Lydia, she told herself angrily.
"Is there?" -- He stopped abruptly and then continued in an almost expressionless voice.
"Is there anything you need over the weekend?
Anything you'd like me to drop in? "
If only he was offering because he cared in some way rather than through a sense of duty, she thought painfully. But he had made it perfectly clear the last few minutes he was in the house that she was at best an irritation, at worst a burden. She wouldn't ask him for a thing.
"No, thank you." She tried to sound as impersonal and brisk as she could, considering the sound of his voice was sending her insides whirling.
"Everything's under control."
_"I'm sure it is." His voice was dry now and very distant.
"You are a very independent lady, aren't you?"
"Am I?" There was a note of surprise in her voice.
"I suppose I am," she added quietly, unsure of how to react.
"Very independent and very single-minded," the sardonic voice continued.
"A formidable combination, if I may say so. Goodbye, Lydia."
"Goodbye," she said quietly, unaware of the forlorn note in her soft voice.
There was a split second of hesitation and then the phone was replaced at the other end, leaving her with a monotonous buzz to say the call had ended.
The weekend dragged by on leaden feet, but then it seemed as though Monday morning had arrived too fast as she got ready for work, her stomach churning.
She pulled a few strands of her hair forward, cutting it in a soft fringe to hide the cut on her forehead, and outwardly at least no sign of the accident was showing as she walked into the office later. Inwardly the whole incident, or more correctly Wolf’s part in it, had affected her far more than she cared to admit.
Hannah had plagued her all weekend with requests to see 'the nice man' again, and in the finish she had had to be uncharacteristically sharp with her small daughter to get her to stop, which had then resulted in a massive guilt session.
All in all, everything seems wrong, she thought silently as she hung her coat carefully in the corner of the room, but for no good reason.
Or nothing she cared to explore, anyway.
"Good morning." She hadn't heard the connecting door open, but now as she swung round it was to find Wolf framed in the doorway of his room, a polite smile stitched on an otherwise cold face.
"Fully recovered?" he asked coolly.
_"Yes, thank you," she nodded quickly, annoyed to find she had blushed scarlet and that her pulses had leapt so violently at the sight of him that her heart had run away like an express train.